Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Did you know?
-Monthly Mission – Holiday Planning
-Check Out These Pages! – Relevant pages and new site additions
-Schedule Your Fun and Activities!

Introduction

It always amazes me how quickly things move this time of year. One week we’re super busy with Halloween fun and then BAM, the day after Halloween we’re saying “Christmas is next month!”. Oh, I know, the stores have been promoting Christmas for quite some time now, but I don’t really think about it until the day after Halloween.

However, today IS November 1st and it’s time to get planning for the holidays ahead. If you don’t like to feel crazy rushed with the details and “to dos” for Thanksgiving and Christmas or Hanukkah, then you should join us for the monthly mission and get started right now. You don’t have to sing Christmas Carols for the next 2 months, but just get your planning started.

Step one around my home is to get the Halloween stuff all put away this weekend. We also need to do a major house tidying up session. When things are busy (and some kids thrive on making messes) our home can get way out of control. This is one of those times, and it drives me crazy! I really need for things to get cleaned up around here in order to move forward and to be able to hear myself think instead of only hearing that voice saying “this place is a mess!”

Click the logo above to learn more!

Did you know…

I actually like getting some catalogs in the mail, from companies I like, especially during the holidays to help with gift ideas. However, some companies really overdo it! I only need one catalog for the season, not one every couple weeks. How do you feel? According to the Junk Mail Report:

51.1% of people receive 1-5 catalogs per week!

60% of people keep their catalogs less than one day.

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. That is the basic idea behind getting ready for the holidays. The more you can get done ahead of time, the more time you have to relax and enjoy the holidays. Plan ahead, start early, and enjoy yourself. To follow along with our monthly mission for November, click here.

Here are some pertinent pages on the website you may have missed along with any new pages.

Holiday Meal Planning - Ideas to help you plan and organize your holiday meals without waiting until the last minute.

After Christmas Organizing - Start thinking now about your after holidays organizing. Take inventory while taking out decorations, so you know what you need to keep and store when you put things away later.

Living Room Storage Make-over - See how we re-organized our living room (play room) with a new Ikea wall unit that's great for storing lots of stuff.

Christmas Organizing - Tips on how to get the most out of your Christmas holidays, in an organized stress free manner.

Home Filing System - Keep all your paperwork in order so you can find what you need at a moments notice, and learn what to keep and what to toss.

Garage Makeover - before and after photos of my personal garage makeover. See how we tackled the problems and ended up with a functional garage.

Streamline Your Morning Routine - Ideas to help you get out the door in the morning and be on time for work or school.

Organizing Children's Artwork - Here are some ideas about what to do with all that fabulous artwork your young kids bring home from school.

Stop Clutter - Quick simple tips on how to stop the clutter from coming into your home in the first place.

There is a lot to do for the holidays, shopping, cooking, and doing fun activities. Don’t let it overwhelm you and put a damper on enjoying the holiday season. To make sure you have time for it all, schedule it now. You don’t want to get to the end of the holiday season only to realize you still have more to do than time allows and have to eliminate some fun things you wanted to do.

Make an activity list
Write down all the things you need to and want to do. This could include things such as: shop for food, put up the tree and decorations, bake cookies, visit the holiday show downtown, watch a particular holiday movie, etc. It can be anything, big or small that you want to get done. You can always add more things as you think of them.

Put everything on the calendar
Spread out all of these tasks and activities over the next few weeks. Pencil in or use a sticky note to place activities on your wall calendar so you can move them around until they fit best. For other tasks that don’t need to be done on a specific day (shopping, pre-cooking, holiday cards), designate a week for each task to be completed. Breaking down a big project into smaller bits that you do each week will lighten your load and your mood.

If everything is on your calendar, you can follow that. Or you can use the master holiday to do list and indicate after each task which week it’s to be done. Or, you can make a weekly list of things to be done during each week. You need to find what works best for you. We are each unique in how we like to organize our lives.

The point is, make a plan ahead of time. Preparing for the holidays makes many people stressed and crazy feeling. But as much as you may not want to think about the holiday season just yet, by starting NOW, you will actually be doing yourself a favor. (You can hold off on the holiday music for a while though if you like.)

Enjoy the next few weeks, do a little bit at a time and it will all get done without being overwhelming.

Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com